A seedy downtown block put the sin in Sin City more than a century ago.
Long before the Sin City ticket number around , Las Vegas laid the foundation for a legacy of bad behavior with Block 16 , a crimson light district for gin mill , brothel , and game of fortune . It was there from the offset when a railroad troupe establish Las Vegas in 1905 as a rest and supply stop between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles . There were 40 pulley-block on 110 Acre with Fremont Street as the primary drag . Block 16 was just one of two blocks ( along with Block 17 , which became segregate ) that ab initio allowed alcohol and gambling — a combination that may or may not have conduce to periodic gunfire .
" The railroad company was very designed about where they placed thing , " harmonise to Claire White , music director of education for the Mob Museum . " They wanted a town that made sentiency , even if it was n’t literally a company town . They wanted railroad proletarian to hold out in a sure surface area and civilian workers to live in a sure area — and they wanted to be able-bodied to manage vice , but still supply it . "
By the meter Las Vegas was incorporate as a city in 1911 , prostitutes start out to show up . Laws were evolving , and hotels were kick in an exemption to serve alcohol , which had unexpected result . " We ended up with hardware stores with hotel room — anything to sell spirits , " jokes Michael Green , associate professor of account at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas . " Block 16 had to compete . They did that by assign cribs or rooms behind the bar , and it became a scarlet Christ Within territory . "
Photos courtesy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collection and Archives | Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist
The most likeable saloon , the Arizona Club , was billed as the " Queen of Block 16 " with a cathouse on the 2d level . The Red Onion , Arcade , Gem , and Nevada Club ( a favorite for draft beer , a gewgaw at the time ) also helped draw client to the dominion . " Most of the ecesis began as tents with wooden facade , " White say . " They look like a Hollywood set for a Western movie . "
As the money lead off to flow , the businesses evolved into full wood and brick structures . The rodeo rider culture and Western theme continued , even through the district ’s go down 24-hour interval in the former 1940s . " You would not say to yourself , ' Oh , this is reset the Old West , ' but it was reminiscent of the Old West , " Green says . " There were various saloon front , some looking nicer than others , and you could go down an alleyway , make a turn , and find commercial-grade tenderness . "
The environment and atmosphere were loose and mostly ride out that way as law came and operate over the age . Nevada in reality ban strong drink before the US did in the Prohibition era , but enforcement was rare and usually only something the feds cared about . " Even during proscription , Block 16 was about as dry as the Pacific Ocean , " Green add up . Sometimes , gambling was sound , and sometimes it was n’t . It retain anyway .
Two men and a horse-drawn carriage are seen outside of the Arizona Club in Las Vegas, Nevada between 1905 and 1915.|Photos courtesy of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collection and Archives
Las Vegas grew rapidly and developed a repute as an adult playground in the 1930s , but Block 16 was n’t commercialize to tourists . It was a place that mostly welcomed workers from the railroads , mine , casinos , and Hoover Dam . " That ’s for sure not to say there were n’t out - of - towners who participated in the sexual trafficking on Block 16 , but it was n’t the elementary driver by any agency , " White says .
The dying of Block 16 is blamed on a few thing — and the importance of each depends on who you talk to . The Las Vegas Army Airfield , which later evolved into Nellis Air Force Base , occur around in 1941 , and the military brass , who had an pursuit in continue recruit aside from tempt distractions , pressured the city to crock up down on the Las Vegas flushed ignitor territorial dominion . There ’s also evidence a developer promised to revitalise the stop if it close down but never followed through .
Either way of life , Vegas was produce , not only in the original city ( or " Downtown " today ) but on Highway 91 , which would eventually become Las Vegas Boulevard , lay out the stage for the Strip . There were more options than ever for drinking and play , leaving Block 16 to hang its reputation on prostitution , specially when alcohol and casino licence were revoked . As local drawing card worked to scavenge up coming into court , the brothels were pushed out to Four Mile on Boulder Highway , an area make after its location four air mile from Main and Fremont .
The Block 16 site today.|Photo by Robert Kachelriess for Thrillist
The organized offense crime syndicate that infamously shaped modern Las Vegas actually had petty to do with Block 16 . The mob add up in to run their own cassino as the Las Vegas reddened light district was already on its way out .
So , what ’s leave of Block 16 ? Well , nothing much . " Unfortunately , the stereotype of Las Vegas tearing down orimploding all its historyapplies to Block 16 , " White says . " These building were n’t build to last and after being condemn in the ' 40 and ' 50s , were all torn down . "
The Block 16 website , between Stewart & Ogden and First & Casino Center , is n’t glamourous or exciting . The country is little more than parking distance , including a service department for Binion ’s Gambling Hall . Other nearby casinos , let in the Golden Gate , Fremont , California , and Four Queens , have history and retro charm but are , for the most part , descendants from a different earned run average . Even Fremont Street isnothing like it used to be , now reimagined as a pedestrian mall for tourists .
Mob Museum—Arizona Club exhibit.|Photo by Chris Wessling
However , you’re able to head over to the quondam courthouse , which is now theMob Museum , and walk through an Arizona Club showing featuring a replica of the signage with items from Block 16 on display , including photos and bar token . A larger - scale diversion of the Arizona Club is part of the Boomtown 1905 streetscape atSpring Preserve , feature a bar , piano , and roulette bike pattern after the Block 16 efflorescence .
Legal brothels are totally gone from the kingdom once known as Four Mile and are outlawed in not just Las Vegas but all of Clark County . The closest ones function in the Nye County communities of Pahrump and Amargosa Valley .
For those on the Las Vegas Strip , visiting theBlock 16 Urban Food Hallat the Cosmopolitan is a more convenient way of life to fertilize an appetency , even if the tribute to the previous Las Vegas cherry-red light district is in name only . Still , a nod to history is always welcome — even if it reminds us that everything is constantly transfer in Las Vegas , including the vices .
